FUEL VFX reunited with Curious Film's Josh Frizzell on a new campaign for BNZ. The spots feature some very cute CG piggy banks, which help bring family together under the banner, 'Wherever you're heading, we can help you get there.'
Warner Bros. has purchased most of Midway Games' assets for $33 million in bankruptcy court, according to VARIETY. WB now owns MORTAL KOMBAT, SPY HUNTER and JOUST, among other game franchises. It opted not to buy two development studios owned by Midway in San Diego, California and Newcastle, England.
A bankruptcy court in Delaware gave the approval for the deal last week, adding that all objections to the sale had been resolved. Midway filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
London, July 6th, 2009 -- Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), today announced that Weta Digital, New Zealand's premier multi-award winning VFX studio, has purchased a site licence of Nuke to enhance its in-house pipeline.
Weta Digital was formed in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers including Peter Jackson to create effects for his HEAVENLY CREATURES project.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- July 6, 2009 -- Fans have asked and LucasArts has delivered! Today the company announced a new initiative in its effort to revive its classic and beloved franchises by making its games available for the first time ever as digital downloads online.
Kunio Kato's 2009 Academy Award-winning animated short film, LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES, as well as his earlier work, THE DIARY OF TORTOV RODDLE are streaming today on Crunchyroll. More information can be found at:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/La_Maison_en_Petits_Cubes and http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/The_Diary_of_Tortov_Roddle.
While weekend estimates had ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS and TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN both at $42.5 million, box office actuals give the title to TRANSFORMERS with $42.3M.
The animated ICE AGE 3 (Fox) still earned the largest opening ever for an animated film on a Wednesday, doing $41.7M over the weekend and $66.7M in total.
TRANSFORMERS 2 (Paramount/DreamWorks, vfx by ILM and Asylum VFX, Digital Domain, Kerner Optical and Proof) has done $293.4M in two weeks, but dropped more than 60 percent from its opening.
As part of SCI FI's brand evolution to Syfy on July 7, a refresh of the look and feel of Syfy will be reflected in a ground-breaking two-minute brand film, "House of Imagination," that celebrates Syfy's unique spin on imagination. Stars from WAREHOUSE 13, EUREKA, GHOST HUNTERS, CAPRICA, SANCTUARY, STARGATE UNIVERSE, and DESTINATION TRUTH are featured.
Before the dog days of summer set in, catch a final week of all new episodes on MARTHA SPEAKS, starting with "Martha's Worst Best Day," airing Monday, July 13.
Be sure to stay tuned to your PBS station for the premiere of Season 2 on September 14, 2009! (Check local listings.)
Six Flags, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SIXFQ), the world's largest regional theme park company, announced today that it will expand its partnership with Nintendo and provide theme park guests with the unique opportunity to play the upcoming Wii Sports Resort(TM) video game. The game features 12 different fun sports activities like archery, basketball and table tennis that everyone in the family can play and comes with the new Wii MotionPlus(TM) accessory, which makes games even more precise.
The Weinstein Co. has recently delayed several films on its slate, the latest being the CG animated 3-D film ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH, reports the LOS ANGELES TIMES.
The film was announced in 2006, but won't get a release until 2011 at the earliest. The story is about a group of aliens plotting to escape Area 51 in Nevada. Previously, ESCAPE had been looking at a 2010 release.
Cult MTV animated comedy DARIA is coming to DVD in 2010, reports Marty Day of Blast-O-Rama.com.
Day received an early copy of another MTV program, THE STATE and says: "Popped in the first disc, and wouldn't you know it, the DVD starts with an ad promoting DARIA hitting DVD in 2010. I guess they're following one 'couldn’t be done' release with another!"
DARIA was a spinoff of BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD and the show has had only two minor DVD releases: DARIA -- THE MOVIE: IS IT FALL YET? and DARIA -- IS IT COLLEGE YET?. Both debuted in 2002.
Luke Goss (BLADE II, HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY) will guest start in the upcoming season of FOX's FRINGE, per VARIETY.
Goss recently finished filming the arcade game adaptation of TEKKEN and is attached to star in MAGDALENA.
CINANIMA 2009 - Call for EntriesDeadline: July 24, 2009
CINANIMA - The International Animated Film Festival invites you to enter your films in the 33rd edition of this yearly meeting point of animation, directors, friends and the audience.
Animation films may apply to the following categories:
-- Short Films-- Medium Length Films-- Feature Films-- First Film, Graduation Film, School Film-- Series-- Commissioned Films
Liquid Dream Solutions today announces ButterflyNetRender 4.35, the newest version of a popular network rendering controller for Lightwave, Maya, Modo, Messiah Studio, 3DSmax, XSI, Digital Fusion, After Effects, Cinema 4D, and more. The controller provides 3D graphic artists with a pain-free way to set up a render farm for managing frame creation in graphic animations. The software is incredibly easy to configure and use.
Cartoon Network, the number one kids' channel in Asia Pacific, has partnered with HP to launch the inaugural Toon Creator Awards, an online animation contest for children, in July 2009. Open to kids aged 6-14, the contest provides a regional platform for young talent from Australia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to showcase their creativity through technology.
Hit Ent. is set to debut a WALLACE & GROMIT Blu-ray set on September 22, reports Blu-ray.com.
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION will include shorts A GRAND DAY OUT, THE WRONG TROUSERS, A CLOSE SHAVE and A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH.
Feature film Wallace and Gromit in: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is not included, as the rights are owned by DreamWorks Animation. The webshorts CRACKING CONTRAPTIONS are also not set to be included.
Digital Domain has lost a wrongful termination suit from former president Christian Bradley Call, and was ordered by a jury to pay nearly $2 million in damages, reports VARIETY.
Call was awarded $659,500 for breach of contract and more than $1.2 million for wrongful termination. The verdict was handed down Thursday in Malibu Superior Court after a two week trial.
